I think that the mockingbirds in this situation are all of the innocent people of Maycomb waiting for this rabid dog (Tim) to come up the road. They haven’t done anything wrong and are scared that they may get hurt or something bad may happen when the dog appears.
Another time the mockingbird idea comes up is in chapter 21,when everyone is in the court room waiting for the verdict on whether Tom Robinson has been found guilty or not. Scout describes the atmosphere in the courtroom like this:
‘The feeling grew until the atmosphere in the court-room was exactly the same as a cold February morning, when the mockingbirds were still and the carpenters had stopped hammering on miss Maudie’s new house.’
I think that when Scout talks about the atmosphere being like a cold February morning she is describing the tension in the room. When everyone is still and silent. When Scout says that the mockingbirds were still I think that she was referring to Atticus and Tom Robinson. I think this because Tom is waiting to see if he has been found guilty or not and Atticus is waiting to see if he has won his case. They are both deadly still and anxious to hear the verdict. They have been regarded as mockingbirds because both Atticus and Tom are innocent characters that have done nothing wrong.
Also another place in which the idea of mockingbirds appears is in chapter 25,when Mr Underwood is talking about Tom Robinson’s escape and death. He seems very opposed to Tom being shot, as he was a cripple. In the newspaper article he wrote he said that
‘It was a sin to kill cripples, be they standing, sitting or escaping’
Then he likened Tom’s death to
‘The senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children.’
Mr Underwood is likening Tom to a mockingbird/songbird. As a mockingbird is not harmful or a horrible creature but a nice peaceful one, Tom Robinson was a quiet family man who had done nothing wrong. His death was an injustice.
In chapter 28,the children (Jem and Scout) are walking home from their school Halloween play. It is night time and so everywhere is dark and cold. The idea of the mockingbird appears when it says:
‘High above us in the darkness a solitary mocker poured out his repertoire in blissful unawareness of whose tree he was sat in.’
I think this is likening the children to mockingbirds because the mocking bird is innocent and unaware of whose three he is sat in and the children are innocent and unaware of what us about to happen next.
In chapter 30,Atticus and Heck Tate are deciding what to do about the situation of Bob Ewells death. Both Atticus and Heck know that Boo killed Bob to save and help the children but to arrest Boo would probably kill him. Scout over-heard and says:
“It’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird.”
This is saying that to arrest an innocent creature like Boo and make it public would kill him. They need to protect him as they have already lost one mockingbird (Tom Robinson) through injustice.
The characters I think Harper Lee regarded, as mockingbirds are Boo Radley and Tom Robinson.
Tom Robinson is regarded as a mockingbird because he is an innocent man who was arrested and found guilty for something he did not do. The people of Maycomb judge him and critisise him because they think that this black man has raped and taken advantage of a white woman. He faces racial prejudice and discrimination and is killed in travesty of justice. A quote to show the discrimination against black people is:
“Its time somebody taught em a lesson…the next thing they think they can do is marry us”. This was said by a teacher at Jem and Scouts school.
Also when Bob Ewell is testifying in court against Tom, he uses phrases like:
“ I see that black nigger yonder ruttin’ on my Mayella.”
Boo Radley is regarded as a mockingbird because he is a lonely innocent old man who lives in his old house on the corner away from the public. He does not bother or disturb anybody. He is nice to the children by giving them small gifts and leaving them in the hole in the tree for them to find. Boo faces individual prejudice. This is fed by fear, rumour and superstition.
Scout describes him as ‘a malevolent phantom’
In comparison to each other both Boo and Tom show kindness (Boo to the children and Tom to Mayella), they are both innocent, both victims of prejudice and both are imprisoned in some way (Tom is imprisoned and then later killed and Boo is imprisoned in his home away from the prejudiced public).
In addition, Atticus in a sense is a mockingbird too because he has been telling everybody in Maycomb the true story and that Tom is innocent and his innocent children are attacked as a result by Bob Ewell because he wants to get revenge on Atticus for trying to defend Tom Robinson. This likens to a mockingbird singing its song to the people of Maycomb.
Scout first learnt that it was a sin to kill a mockingbird when Atticus brought her and Jem the shotguns and told them about it. I think that after Atticus explained that it was wrong to kill an innocent creature that can do no wrong, Scout becomes more respectful. Also by her father telling her this it helps her to understand her father and what he has to do. She understands that he has to defend innocent people like Tom Robinson that have done no wrong.
Over the course of this book Scout learns different lessons. She learns from Calpurnia that she should be polite to everyone, from Aunt Alexandra the value of being a lady and from Heck and Atticus the problems that could be caused by the society’s prejudice.
I think that over the course of this novel Scout comes out to be quite clever and forever learning new morals and ways of life. By the end of the novel she has learnt one key lesson. That she must see thing’s from other people’s views. She shows this in the book in the last chapter when she is standing on Boo Radley’s front porch. Here is the quote on what she said:
“Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough.”
Here she puts herself in Boo Radley’s shoes and imagines what it must be like for him.
My final impression of Scout is that after all what she has been through she has become wiser and more grown up. She has learnt important values to life and has become more caring and understanding.
